Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The New CSM, Part 1

As part of my campaign for CSM8, I've been writing a series of articles about my platform, my philosophy of campaigning, and my vision of how the CSM should interact with CCP. I would link all of those posts here, but if you haven't read them already, just scroll down the main page. And while you're at it, enjoy some of the other posts I've made this month. Just because you came here to read about the CSM doesn't mean you shouldn't take advantage of an opportunity to read some other great stuff.

...Which just happens to be a great segue into the theme of today's post.

I officially announced my CSM8 candidacy earlier this month in a post on MinerBumping. This raised a few eyebrows, since most candidates declared by making a thread in the Jita Park Speakers Corner on EVE-O. That particular subforum is designated for CSM-related topics. Members of the current CSM can engage with the EVE community there, and candidates for the next CSM can reach out to potential voters. It's a great subforum, except for one thing: Very few people actually read it.

While MinerBumping averages nearly 4,000 hits per day, the viewer counts on the individual threads in Jita Park show that they struggle to attract even a small fraction of MinerBumping's traffic--even though Jita Park is open and (presumably) relevant to a community of hundreds of thousands of players. The problem with Jita Park is that it's one of countless "graveyard" subforums; threads go there to die. People get a larger audience spamming Jita than they do by posting in Jita Park. EVE-O is subdivided into so many narrow little subforums that EVE players don't bother to read them. The only subforum with a healthy flow of traffic is the EVE General Discussion subforum, which is for--appropriately enough--uncategorized, miscellaneous topics. But if a topic in General Discussion fits too neatly into the realm of another subforum, it will be whisked away into oblivion.

It would be easy to cure many of EVE-O's ills simply by combining most of the subforums into General Discussion. This wouldn't require extra work--in fact it would take less work, since moderators wouldn't need to move from subforum to subforum and send threads from one place to the next. So why don't they do it? Institutional inertia and an excessive love of organization. They're powerful things. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if EVE-O never got fixed.

At this point, you might be wondering why I'm talking about EVE-O in a post about the CSM. It seems to me that the CSM suffers from a lot of the same problems EVE-O does. No one wants to think outside the box or break away from the institutional routines. EVE has serious problems and needs bold, dramatic solutions to set things right. But when you're dealing with people who think merging dead subforums is too radical, it's hard to get anything accomplished. Instead, we see only drift.

CCP and the CSM need to hit the "reset" button and clear away all of the old habits and practices that tie them down. Aside from nerfing highsec aggression, which seems to have a permanent place on the agenda, it's hard to say exactly what CCP's preexisting plans are for CSM8's term. Whatever they are, I would advise against getting too attached, because we need to set those plans aside in favor of dealing with more urgent matters.

There's a lot of cynicism about the CSM these days, and rightly so. The first item on the new agenda should be to send a clear signal to the EVE community that things will not continue as they have been. Imagine if, the day after CSM8 took office, CCP and CSM8 issued a joint statement announcing the exoneration of Kugutsumen and the normalization of relations with the Kugutsumen.com community. They could explain that their baggage is getting thrown away, that BoB was a joke, and that they have no further reason to hold onto old grudges. I suspect the first reaction of most people (if they know who Kugutsumen is) would be something like: "Wow. This isn't the old CCP/CSM we're dealing with."

As with the reformation of EVE-O's subforums, it would cost CCP nothing (in terms of money, time, or anything else), and it would deliver a powerful message to the community. Namely, that CCP and CSM8 intend to get down to business. My vision of how I would fit into the daily operations of CSM8 will be the subject of Part 2.

I commented not too long ago saying I intended to support you in the upcoming election. Some of the responses I received surprised me: other commenters objected to my expression of loyalty, stating that I should not pledge myself to a candidate until I knew what his or her plan was for CSM8.

The other commenters apparently believed I should support a candidate's agenda, rather than the candidate himself. I must disagree with this notion. I feel that the Council's most valuable tool for change is its members, not its members' visions for EVE Online. Even CSM6, for all the improvements it brought to the game, would have been nothing if it did not have powerful personalities at the helm. Councilmen do not change EVE by presenting CCP with individual agendas; they change EVE by forcing change down CCP's throat.

In short, the ideal CSM member is, first and foremost, a powerful, charismatic personality. The ideal CSM member is a strong leader, able to unite the rest of the CSM in pressuring CCP into improving their game.

I still don't know what James 315's specific plans are as a CSM member. I don't know the exact changes he plans to suggest to CCP in order to improve (through nerfing) highsec. And honestly, I don't care. I don't care what his plan is; I'm happy that James 315 is running for CSM and has a plan. I've seen what he's accomplished in EVE Online and other games, and I earnestly believe that A) His agenda is in EVE's best interest and B) He is capable, unlike most other CSM candidates, of making CCP implement his agenda.

That's why I'm voting James 315. [i]He can lead. There is no limit to what he can become.[/i]

coherent? bahahahahahahahaha! he can rave like a mad man sure. he can decide that he wants to (to try) break the game cause he doesn't like miners. and remember he started the game as a scammer who ripped off anyone who trusted him, he is good at fast talking people to get them to trust him, and a history of ripping them off.

James 315, you're trying to justify your non-existence in Jita Park with this blog post, which would be fine if you actually had a channel where you discuss things with the EvE player base. But you don't.

This blog is apparently your sole campaign voice. However you rarely enter into discourse with EvE players on any points or questions that they make here on your site. And you don't discuss things with them elsewhere either.

I put it to you that you refuse to post on Jita Park because a wider EvE player base will see that you ignore all of their concerns and what they are asking of you. Let me state this simply:

James 315 is a CSM candidate who ignores EvE players.

Discourse from you, James 315, is deafening in it's absence. It's drowning out everything you say. Your communication is one-way. You tell players what you think and that's it. End of. Players who question your CSM campaign basis, methods, points, data, validity, vision etc. are almost 100% ignored by you, everywhere, all the time.

Whether you ignore EvE players because you can't answer them, because you don't have time or because you think yourself as being above such menial things is unimportant. The end result is the same:

At the moment i am at work and when i read this i laugh too loud. The fact you bother to post this it's a good proof James don't ignores EVE players. Do you really prefer another "candidate" who only know how to aprove the CCP over and over? Or a carebear (personally i consider myself another carebear but at least i participated in the game as a pirate, ninja, scammer etc) who really play this game like a single player game?The only sane candidate it's James because atm he really understand this PVP game it's in danger to become another theme park. Out there are a lot of theme park MMO's and if you want consensual pvp, arenas, npc overprotection and other nonsense like this please leave EVE because you damage the entire game with your whines.

First off, you seem to have a skewed vision of the CSM, they are there to present ideas, and work with CCP to make the game good for the ENTIRE player-base, not only carebears that want a single player space theme park. I got into EVE because of non-consensual PVP, and I won't stay if it has to go, cause that would ruin it for me.

All 3 of those responses have several things in common: They all mention "carebears" when my OP above didn't. They all involve unsubstantiated personal attacks on me and / or carebear insinuations.They fail to address the content of my post, instead focussing on me (who they clearly don't know).

So guys, stop with the "he must be a carebear who had his mining ship blown up" bullshit and all the childish personal insinuations and try to focus on the points I made.

@Alistair, Great points. But I have never said anything to the contrary. Try addressing what I said please and not an argument you think you can win (for the record, I don't want a theme park, OK!)

@Kazacy, see reply to Alistair. This is not about carebears. It's about James 315's reluctance to enter into discussions with the EvE player base but believing he'll somehow be good at representing them even though he doesn't communicate with them. HINT: read my OP, don't make stuff up / debunk a different and 100% irrelevant argument.

@Galaxy Pig, going by the responses thus far garnered, It would appear as though James 315's supporters try to make every "valid dissenter" out to be a "crying carebear". You insinuated as such too with "wondering what type of poster I am". Please drop the "argument by personal insinuations" approach and apply yourself to the content of my OP please.

If it's not obvious to you all yet, here's something resembling a TL;DR for you:

James 315 cannot possibly make a suitable CSM candidate when he ignores the players and refuses to enter into discussions about his policies & ideas with them. He is supposed to be representing them, not ignoring them.

OK point take i will reply punctually to you: you say "James cannot possibly make a suitable CSM candidate when he ignores the players" but there is a small problem. In my opinion (i am too lazy to verify this) only a small minority of players actually vote for CSM. All candidates want to get the votes of this minority only, and also another personal opinion, the players in this minority read forums, blogs, evenews etc about EVE. The other players the vast majority (i don't know maybe the 80-90%) don't vote at all so this blog maybe it's more than enough for him to get a chair in CSM.In the end it's very hard to vote when you are afk :)

P.S. i don't have any numbers to backup my opinions about the percents of players who vote and i am too lazy to chek with google.

@Kazacy I'm not too sure what your point is. A low percentage of players vote so therefore James 315 shouldn't discuss anything with the player base? Sorry, I think I'm not following what you're saying.

@Fawn TailorRE: Ripard Teg. Got a link please? Ignoring players is ignoring them. If you want me to be arbiter, I at least need to know what I am arbitrating on.

You appear to be conflating leadership with avoiding discourse, which is odd given how very different they are. As you presumably don't think much of Ripard Teg, let's take him as an example. On his blog and on EVE-O forums and maybe other public forums, he is happy to take the time to discuss and substantiate his opinions with players in public. From what I've seen, he is also good at encouraging players to voice their opinions. If he gets elected onto the CSM, I'd expect him to continue in this way, meaning that we have at least a chance of having our opinions heard by CCP.

Now let's take James 315. Great he's told us what he's going to do, what he's going to tell CCP to do and that he wont accept any bullshit from CCP! Wonderful! Only that's not how it works.

Firstly any questions or doubts any players have regarding James 315's policies will all ignored by him. That is not "clearly letting people know", it's avoiding discussing his ideas and keeping peoples in the dark. It's also definitely not what I would call good leadership. It's a form of dictatorial leadership which is not to be questioned. Yeah not good is it.

Secondly, the CSM don't get to tell CCP what CCP should do in future expansions. The CSM are asked by CCP for opinions and probable player perception / acceptance of CCPs proposed plans. Obviously James 315 cannot provide this feedback to CCP as he refuses most forms of public discourse with the player base.

Shame you couldn't control yourself at the end of your post. I'm getting the feeling personal insinuations about unknowable qualities of people unknown are a replacement for mature debate at minerbumping.com. I may have started to understand why James 315 refuses to discuss anything here...

Waldo, you are just wrong when you state that 315 "is supposed to be representing [the players], not ignoring them." Because it is quite possible to represent someone you ignore. Indeed, it is possible to represent someone who you don't even know; who you've never talked to, and never will.

You represent someone when you accurately state what they believe to whomever cares about their opinion. Note that there is no part of that which involves you having to interact with those you represent. Certainly, listening to people is one way of figuring out what they believe, so as to represent them. But there are other ways.

315 is very clear about his opinion on how to change the game: "nerf highsec into oblivion". To others who feel that highsec should be nerfed into oblivion, this is exactly what they want, and 315 is exactly the sort of candidate that would represent them just fine. 315 does not have to talk to these people to represent them. He does not need to be able to say, "well I talked to 2000 players last week and 51% of them agreed with me". Rather, we have a mechanism by which we ascertain that "enough" people agree with "nerf highsec into oblivion", to be worth having a candidate that holds that opinion in the CSM. That mechanism is the CSM election.

Waldo, when you asked me for a link, you just asked me to point you towards Ripard Teg's announcement of his candidacy on the Jita Park forum on EVE-O.

It seems you haven't read it or you would have known exactly what I was talking about. You've substantiated the point James just made in his article, well done.

"Conflating leadership with avoiding discourse"? dear me, you sound like someone on the High School debating team. It's a neat "move" to try and get someone to defend a position they haven't taken or to try and explain something that you've deliberately misconstrued, but all you've done is show why you so desperately want argument from James.

You like debate because you're confident you can tie up your opposition with cheap lawyer skills and word games. You don't like James' style of leadership because he won't play your game.

Lacking real leadership yourself, you have no idea how to deal with a true leader.

Your post shows you to have the kind of attitude that James and the New Order are so against - when someone won't play the game in a way that is advantageous to you, you cry and complain, insisting that they change.

If you want to oppose James, stand for CSM and see if your way of "leading" really is the better one. Let the people decide.

Sorry Waldo for replying late, didn't bring my laptop to school to reply faster. It wasn't my intention to call you a carebear, or insinuate you wanted a theme park, and I am sorry that was how I sounded. You are absolutely right that I should have been replying to your OP, and my comment should have been on its own. I am not an argumentative person in real life and I didn't want to start one here, nor do I care about "winning" one or not (my belief is that there are no winners of an argument).

To make a response to your OP, the CSM elections have been marked with low turnout rates, with the first having about 11%, CSM2 8.6%, CSM3 9.7%, CSM4 7.36%, CSM5 12.67%, CSM6 14.25%, and CSM7 saw a record 16.63% turnout. So it would be no wonder candidates want to appeal only to this group. I would like to see what evidence you have for your point of James ignoring the players, just to satisfy my curiosity, I want to know.

@Von KeigaiA good reply, thanks. And one to which I agree with in part. Of course a CSM candidate can have ideas and vision in common with a player without knowing them and to some extent the CSM elections can be done on that basis. But just being elected on the strength of agreeing with some of what a candidate has said, at least to me, is not enough when considering the whole picture of EvE and the CSM / CCP relationship and process.

As themes, expansions etc. progress throughout the year, a key role of the CSM is to get feedback and represent players on the topics being discussed. If James 315 is not doing this because he ignores players, what is he going to do? Just keep repeating "nerf high-sec into oblivion" when asked about say, a refinement of the bounty hunting feature?

Aside from that, the issue I have is that I agree in principle with some of James 315's general ideas like high-sec requiring a nerf. But his methods and way of achieving them are, imho, poorly thought out, potentially dangerous and could be vastly improved. However James 315 is not open for any discussion surrounding his ideas or policies. He ignores all comments relating to them and is refusing interaction with players. He is, beyond any doubt, dictatorial in nature. If none of this is a problem for you, that's fine, but to me it is a major concern to James 315 being a CSM representative. Maybe others will consider this a potential problem too.

@Fawn TailorWhat a vitriolic, aggressive, insulting and irrelevant post! Impossible to take such childish postulating seriously.

@AlistairThanks for the reply and no problem with your first one. It was a bit frustrating that everyone appeared to miss what I was saying and ranted about carebears.

My "evidence" is the lack of discourse between James 315 and the player base on CSM issues. There's no discussion from James with players here on minerbumping.com, no EVE-O thread and as far as I can tell no discussion on any other forum involving the man himself. He simply appears to not be open for discussing anything CSM related with the players. To me, this is a basic essential of a CSM candidate (I explain this more in some earlier posts). If James wants to appeal to a niche set of players, that's fine, but it does not remove the need for close player / CSM discourse. That's it from me for a while so have a good day / evening / whatever.

This is probably gonna miss your attention for a while, but yeah, that does seem a little strange. I've hoped to catch him here in comments or something, and these comments might make it on a post for all I know, but I've had no luck. Maybe an ideal candidate would be somebody like Jesse Ventura, who can rally the majority of non-voters and win a seat by listening to the voters and getting constant feedback. But maybe that is just an idealist sentiment.

Waldo, I have posted questions to James 315 asking him to comment on what he thinks he would do on a CSM that has rejected his ideas. He has not, as of yet, written anything about this. However, there is yet time in this campaign. And indeed, this very post hints that he may address it next time: "My vision of how I would fit into the daily operations of CSM8 will be the subject of Part 2." On the other hand, perhaps we will get more God-King of EVE viewpoint, and we will have to keep asking that question. We will get an answer? Maybe.

I dislike 315's ideas on how to nerf highsec. He would render it a desert; I would like to see it rendered a battleground. However, that stated, regardless of what 315 thinks the job entails, I see almost no possibility that CCP will implement "nerf highsec into oblivion". So I feel there is practically no danger on that score. What I feel is much more likely is that CCP will propose several new ideas on how to buff highsec. And that is where you need a strong man, standing athwart CCP yelling 'Stop!'.

Finally, let me address your assertions of "dictatorial". You see a dictator; I see man with firm opinions. Potato. Personally, I dislike the idea that to get represented I have to continually lobby someone -- Jester, say -- for a full year, because he is liable to bend with the wind of public opinion. He says as much: he wants to serve as a communication conduit to CCP. James 315, you don't have to lobby and indeed you don't get to lobby. He just says what he believes. And if that is what you want, it's even better than a guy who only does what you want if you keep pestering him and gather your 200 friends to also pester. Do I want to pester? I do not. Do I want to organize people? I do not.

See, I hate politics. The idea that I have to continually beg the powers that be to do the right thing rubs me the wrong way. I hate elections because I'd prefer not to be represented. My "consent" is not given. But if elections must happen, I want my representative to do his job and represent me without me having to tell him what to say. But that is only possible if the man has firm opinions.

To put my two cents in, I do not think lobbying would have to be implemented at all. I do agree with you on disagreeing with things such as "nerf highsec into oblivion," and that there needs to be a balance in the candidates to CSM in terms of their positions on EVE matters. But all that would be really needed for a connection is someone has their say on a forum or something, the candidate can see it whenever, and that is really all you need. No lobbying really needed, unless of course you mind sifting through tons of opinions given.

If the vast majority of these ~valid dissenters who care about EVE~ were anything other than irate carebears he might dignify their nonsense with a response. James 315 does engage in discourse on his blog, but your posts have to indicate you legitimately care/are knowledgeable about the issues and not just someone who's mad we blew up their exhumer. I wonder which kind of poster you are...The second reason I think the Savior is at times reticent, is that, whatever carebear argument is being made, he's usually already addressed it at least once in his previous writings. It's usually the same tired old broken argument or entirely based on some premise that is entirely anti-EVE, like: "low/null is for PVP, Hisec is for PVE".

I'm serious. The linked blog post consists of a dozen pages of whinging about mean ol' James 315 as well as some kind of carebearish babble about "earning respect." The blogger then proceeds with a number of empty threats against James 315's internet spaceship, insisting that he could kill James 315 if he wasn't so busy with important things such as mining in highsec. If by "interesting" Bobbins meant "laughable" I understand; otherwise, I don't get why this was linked here.

I read Mabrick's post, and it's truly a gem, but not for the reasons that the author (or Bobbins) intended. It's an astonishing display of the author's self-absorption and anger. He sputters ad hominems, shakes his fist, stamps his feet, and declares a vendetta against James.

It's the blog post equivalent of a miner who sets you to Bad/Terrible standings and sends you a notification about it. Its a demand that we take his opinions seriously - when we couldn't care less. If it were a child, we might be sympathetic. But since it's a man acting like a child, we either roll our eyes or resort to laughter and ridicule.

I'm serious. This blog consists of a dozen posts of whining about AFK miners as well as some kind of code babble about a "cult" The blogger then proceeds with a number of empty threats against all highsec internet spaceships, insisting that he should be able to kill them all without any intervention as he can't face ships with guns that fire back - it scares him too much. If by "nerf highsec" James 315 meant "turn eve into space invaders with super easy kills" I understand; otherwise, I don't get why this blog exists.

I read Jamees's post, and it's truly a gem, but not for the reasons that the author (or Alana Charen-Teng) intended. It's an astonishing display of the author's self-absorption and anger. He sputters ad hominems, shakes his fist, stamps his feet, and declares a vendetta against highsec.

It's the blog post equivalent of a ganker who kills an AFK non-combat ship and declares himself awesome. Its a demand that we take his opinions seriously - when we couldn't care less. If it were a child, we might be sympathetic. But since it's a man acting like a child, we either roll our eyes or resort to laughter and ridicule.

I don't think James has much to worry about from Mabrick. He has a career total of six kills, four of them being customs offices. Frankly, from reading all the bluster and self entitlement on his blog, I don't think Mabrick would even shoot much less even scar the invincible Stabber Fleet Issue.

A fun read though. Declaring a vendetta and then warping off to a wormhole. At least Anslo sat in local and berated us.

Oh look, it is another James 315 support blog. Much like the Anslo proveldtariat thing (did that die? Haven't heard from that in ages.), blogs like that have the uncanny tendency to further promote James' cause and candidacy, simply by making the "other" side look bad.

OK, I bit. As most of you know I love to forum pvp so I went to Mabricks blog and posted. The usual thing about www.minerbumping.com and follow The Code. Plus some comments about people who declare vendetta's and then go run and hide in worm holes. Some good stuff... very witty.

And here it is:

Mabrick,

Thanks for bringing information about James 315 and the New Order of Highsec to your blog. Its good for it to appear in as many places as possible no matter how obscure or how few readers a particular site has.

You did leave out a few things that might be of interest to your reader.

The New Halaima Code of Conduct and the stories of the adventures of the Agents and Knights of the New Order can be found at www.minerbumping.com along with information about James 315's CSM candidacy. He writes about it there instead of in the Eve-O forum because he has a much higher number of readers then the CSM forum sees.

The Code itself applies throughout highsec but not in worm hole space. Therefore, you are unlikely to run into James 315 in whichever hole you have gone to. So if you mean you will mine where you want, when you want, in a wormhole, you will be unmolested by the New Order. Highsec of course is a different matter. But be warned. James flies an invincible Stabber Fleet Issue so any attempt to gank him will be unsuccessful as have all past attempts. An earlier poster was right though, it will generate a kill right. These have been relentlessly activated by New Order Agents and most attempted ganks have been shortly followed by an additional ship loss for the attemptee.

I realize you are speaking for yourself and don't intend to start a resistance movement per se. This is wise as each previous attempt, and there have been several, have been spectacular failures. From the "Proveldariat" to the "Collective Front" each attempt has ended with either the public surrender or just plain disappearance of its leaders (and in a recent case, an entire corp disbanding). I know you say you cannot be bothered to actually do anything about it but if you were interested in shooting at James I have heard that Kamio or Halaima are an excellent place to start looking. Just sayin'

As of today, 73 members of the New Order reside in the CODE. alliance. A quick look at the CODE. Eve Kill board shows 1668 ships and capsules killed for a total of 178 billion ISK damage. In February. So far. Not surprisingly this kind of carnage has attracted numerous war decs. Total war dec losses for CODE., zero. So you can put that NPC corporation lie to bed. The New Order isn't hiding from anyone.

We in the New Order are fighting to save highsec. To us, this means stopping the relentless nerfing of possible danger that has led to the botting and afking so prevalent today. Things like the Exhumer EHP buff, the new ore hold capacities, CRIMEWATCH II have all led to players believing they could take their 200 million ISK ship to an ice field or asteroid belt, turn on their lasers, and then go do the laundry. And then expect to return in a half hour to not only find their ship intact, but themselves richer by a cargo hold of ice or ore. This is what they think Eve is.

Now, Mabrick is just the kind of fellow we supposed him to be. My post did not appear. Instead he wrote this:

Mabrick February 27, 2013 at 11:19 AM

Bing Bangboom left a rather lengthy defense of James 315 and his followers which might have appeared here if I really gave a rat's ass about what he had to say.

I wrote another post pointing out to him that his "Code" and ethics clearly didn't include letting anyone comment unfavorably upon his remarks. That didn't get published either. Instead:

Mabrick February 27, 2013 at 11:55 AM

Bing Bangboom just sent a short rant about my not posting his proselytizing first comment. I still don't give a rat's ass.

So he's a coward both in and out of game. Very fine, defiant words. Then he runs off and hides in a worm hole. And even worse, won't let me spew on his blog! That really hurts, I can tell you. At least www.minerbumping.com still lets me write my obviously VERY interesting thoughts out for the world to admire.

After a request from one of his readers, Mabrick has released my comments on his blog. He still doesn't like the New Order or me but at least he realized that censoring us didn't make him look good.

I haven't run a blog so its probably the kind of thing each person who actually takes the trouble to do so has to decide for himself. In this case, I think Mabrick made a good decision and his blog will be better for it.

He still won't actually effect what we do, but at least we are having a discussion now.

Anyone else think it's ironic that James and his gang kill the very people he needs to vote him into CSM8?

Furthermore, I think you put too much faith in the CSM sir. You tout that you will change things..make CCP listen to your demands..make CCP shelve their plans for yours. If the POS revamp is any indication, CCP seems more likely to tell you to pound rock salt than listen to your demands. The CSM is a puppet group and nothing more. You are allowed some small measure of power to SUGGEST ideas but in all truthfulness, they probably don't and won't care about what you have to say..

315 does not need the miner vote to get on CSM. Which is good, because he won't get it. Miners, as you may have noticed, dislike James and what he stands for. To the extent that they do support him, they are not really miners.

One way 315 may well get elected is by being placed on the Goon's listing, or that of one of the other large nullsec blocs, though goons are most likely. It probably comes down to what mynnna wants, or perhaps The Mittani. If the goon leadership decides that they want someone 'extreme' in CSM, holding a 'radical' opinion, then 315 should be elected easily.

My guess is that 315 has enough independent fame/notoriety that even absent the endorsement of a large nullsec bloc, he will be elected. 315 stands out in sharp relief from all the other candidates. They are all running on a traditional politician's weasel-word platform of "communicating", being willing to change their positions based on popular sentiment, "representing" people by listening to them, and "working with" CCP. None of these really commit you to do anything in particular. 315 dispenses with all of that. As such, he has niche support, but his niche is very motivated to vote for him; they have no good substitute. As such, my suspicion is that a lot of nullsec machine voters, even if presented with a "Goon ticket" or the like, may tweak it slightly to put 315 in there somewhere.

I think that a lot of the comments on this blog prove James 315's point. Around half of the comments on any given article are made by angry miners and other carebears, revealing that despite being outspoken enemies of James 315 and the New Order, they read his blog. And the louder they complain about James 315, the further the wind carries their shrill, nasally voices, garnering ever more attention and support for the New Order.

Wrong how?All i see is NO and there ALTs crying help help i am a care bear, its not right what the miners or any one els is doing so we want it our way!Bragging about 59 billion, ha thats about a 10th of what i´ve got. I have Alts and do business in almost every system of EVE and i´ve watched NO for a long time now but nothing has changed at all, the only thing i have see is some noob NO Alts in local chat saying over and over again pay 10mil or get ganged. Its getting boring try something new coz its not working and get a life for crying out loud!

But, what the heck does "exonerating" a forum board like Kugutsumen or recognizing the Mittani have to do with your platform?

Only 20 percent maybe read forums or care. I think you would have done better by sticking with your "keep some risk in high sec" platform other than putting emphasis on old drama no one cares about.

Also, we realize you are an ex-goon. But sheesh. The Mittani incident is old news. The mittani messed up but has moved on. Why not forget those and move forward with the real meat of your campaign instead of statements like that which can alienate folks who may support much of what you say but are no fan of goons/ could care less?